TRACK & FIELD | Elis struggle at heptagonal championships

Princeton, N.J. — Yale track and field struggled at Ivy League Heptagonal Championships in Princeton, N.J. this weekend, as both the men’s and women’s teams finished last overall.

Princeton won its third straight men’s team title with 190 points, leapfrogging second-place Cornell in the standings with strong finishes in the last events of the meet. Yale finished with 19 points, 27 behind seventh-place Penn.

On the women’s side, Cornell repeated as champions with 145 points, led by a strong contingent of distance runners. Columbia, Harvard, and Princeton rounded out a tightly grouped top four, all earning over 100 points. Yale finished with 10.

At Ivy League Championships, the top six finishers in every event score points. Ten are awarded for first place, and one for sixth place.

The Yale men received the bulk of their scoring from Michael Levine ’13, who entered the meet as the two-time Ivy League defending champion in the discus. Levine threw a personal-best 55.61 meters in the discus, but was edged out by a new arrival to Ancient Eight competition, Penn freshman Sam Mattis.

“I knew it was my last test and didn’t want to leave anything in the circle,” Levine said about his personal best, which came on his fourth attempt of the discus finals. “I just went after it, and had a great throw.”

Levine also medaled in the hammer throw, finishing third with a 56.67-meter effort.

Paul Chandler ’14 also scored for the Elis with a fifth-place showing in the pole vault. James Shirvell ’14 finished sixth in the 1500 meters, losing ground in the last lap after a strong start.

The women’s team endured a string of near misses, as five runners finished seventh in their races, one spot away from the podium.

Triple jumper Alisha Jordan ’15 had the best individual showing on the team, hop, skipping, and jumping 12.11 meters on her first attempt en route to a fourth-place finish. Karleh Wilson ’16 came in fifth in the discus, and Nihal Kayali ’13 closed our her Heps career with a sixth-place finish in the 3000 meters.

Yale’s women’s team finished eighth at Ivy League Championships last year, and the men finished seventh.